There's simply no easy way to describe Anomalisa, which shouldn't come
as a surprise considering it springs from the mind of Charlie Kaufman whose
films are never easy to pin down. As the brilliant brain behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind, Adaptation, Being
John Malkovich, and Synecdoche, New York, Kaufman
has indulged in the romantic, the bizarre, and the somber, but no matter what
his films are always enlightening even if they aren't always engaging.
Funny then that the stop-motion animated Anomalisa would find
Kaufman connecting on his most human level yet, considering it's a film
entirely about one man's lack of human connection. Paired up with Duke
Johnson, Kaufman's kooky genius is matched with a unique visual and narrative
style that guarantees nobody will confuse it with other stop-motion films. For
one thing, none can lay claim to having one of the strangest and most
fascinating cunnilingus scenes ever captured on the big screen.
David Thewlis voices Michael Stone, a
lonely author in the field of customer service who heads to Cincinnati for a
one-day conference. If being an expert in the field of customer service seems
like a bore, then it goes double for Stone who is one of those classic Kaufman
"sad sack" characters disillusioned with life as a whole. While
married and with a son, Stone is clearly unhappy and sees this trip as a
desperate opportunity to reach out to a past love that he left on bad terms.
But it's not that simple, of course. Stone is one of those people who cringe at
the banality of casual small talk. He chaffs at the idea of human interaction,
which makes this conference where he's kind of a celebrity, a living nightmare.
That anyone could be a celebrity in the
field of customer service is just one of the oddities Kaufman explores, just as
it's weird to have someone who is generally dissatisfied with life in a
business all about satisfying others. But the film is titled Anomalisa for a reason;
Stone eventually meets a shy woman named Lisa (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh)
who turns his life around. He finds her extreme lack of self-confidence oddly
charming. He calls her an anomaly because she stands out from the other dull
people in his life, which is funny because she's completely plain in every way.
She's his "Anomalisa", and the two find comfort in the
grueling, antiseptic Hellholes that are business hotels where everyone is just
a little too eager to please.
It's in the exploration of that last
aspect where Kaufman and Johnson may lose some viewers as it devolves into a
twisted Twin Peaks-esque landscape. But then there's a surreal
quality to all of it, especially in the casting of Tom Noonan to voice every
character that isn't Stone or Lisa, and that includes females. As a
representation of the film's central theme of life's mundanity it may seem a
little too direct, especially since little else is spelled out as pointedly.
But underneath all of the absurdity is a gentle humor that has been
missing from Kaufman lately. Kaufman genuinely seems to be having fun poking at
humanity's silly quirks again, and animation has given him the proper platform
for embracing his lighter side. Anomalisa may be too idiosyncratic for some
to deal with; it can be as exhilarating as it can be uncomfortable. But such is
life, and if it were any other way that would be pretty darn mundane.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
